Beyond the Barricade
by mynameisviv
Summary: It is 1832, and the Barricade boys are fighting their final battle. They try. They fight. They die. Instead of heaven, they wake up confused in a large white room, and everything is explained. It wasn't real. It was an experiment. Now, The boys must fight another battle in a world that is falling apart. A futuristic les mis story inspired by "The maze runner" and "Divergent".
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 - Children of the barricade**

It was a perfect summer evening. The moon was shining through the cloudless sky lighting the deserted streets below. It was the calm before the storm. Paris was silent and still. Her citizens' split between those would hide and wait and those who would stand up and fight for their rights and those who would crush them strait back into the ground. The city was holding its breath, waiting for tomorrow to come. Waiting to see what tomorrow would bring.

The barricade was the home of those who would fight. The towering pile of furniture that had once been resilient was now looking battered. Chair after chair, table after table had been thrown out of the surrounding windows, a symbol of everyone's dedication to the fight ahead. This intimidating wall had once been their strong point, with dozens of rebels eager to climb over and face the enemy. Now it seemed pathetic as the few men left hid behind it, beaten and awaiting their deaths. The barricade was like a game that little children play. But the boys of the ABC cafe were the little children in this game, and they were losing badly.

The boys of the ABC cafe were strewn around, unsure of what to do. Some were trying to sleep, eat or plan but everyone was so shaken that all they wanted was another chance to fight. Unsuccessful and demoralizing, the previous fights had left everybody physically but mostly mentally weak. They had lost too many and they knew that more would be lost. The spark that had started their revolution of fire was starting to dwindle.

Enjolras was the leader. The one who should be calm, in control and strong? He wasn't. He sat up and looked around at his friends and fellow fighters, curled up in blankets, asleep for what they knew would be the last time. Asleep, they looked younger, like children pretending to be adults. He knew that in a way it was his fault that they were here. Initially, he had come up with the idea, been the most enthusiastic and persuaded them to join. When the plans became serious, all the boys had made it clear to him that they were here at their free will and that they were willing to try and equally willing to die.

He lay back down and stared at the wall, trying to get some sleep, but all he could think about was how they were failing. The plans had gone completely wrong: they hardly had any weapons left; they would be outnumbered badly and didn't know anything about the enemy's plans. All they knew was that they would attack.

Through the darkness, he heard the slurred sound of singing coming from the piano in the center of the barricade; he immediately knew who it was. He sighed, and with a slight smile walked over to his friend. Grantaire was sat at the piano with his head slumped over the keys and an empty beer bottle in his hand, snoring and occasionally singing to himself. Enjolras took the blanket that was on top of the piano and tenderly wrapped it over Grantaire's shoulders, careful not to wake him, and carefully slid the beer bottle out of his hand. As he was turning around to leave, Grantaire opened his eyes and began to sob. Not a drunken over dramatic sob but an almost silent sniffle.

His eyes were full of tears,"Its my gun, I just cant look at it".

"Why? What's wrong?" Enjolras whispered, turning back around.

"Its covered in blood. I'm a murderer. I'm just as bad as them" He whimpered into the piano keys. Enjolras knelt down next to his friend and looked him in the eye. "You are not like them. You are fighting for a good reason" he promised, "They are cowardly murderers. Now, how about you sleep and I'll clean your gun, everything will seem better tomorrow".

"Ok, it's in the cupboard in the cafe" Grantaire sighed, his voice slowing down. "Ok, sleep tight" Enjolras replied and walked towards the ABC cafe.

The ABC cafe was an old cafe were the poor young men of the area had been meeting for years. With warm candlelight, friends, wine and music it had been a welcoming place. Now it was ghostly, without any furniture, in the darkness, stripped of furniture and dirty, it was only a sad echo of the past. The one place that had been fun and warm had been touched with the same cold magic.

Enjolras walked in through the empty doorframe and opened the wooden cupboard that they used to store wine in. However, he was surprised when he saw that instead of one gun there were twelve. He considered that he may be dreaming, but he didn't recall falling asleep. He picked up the guns and inspected them; every singe one of them was perfect and fully loaded. Speechless and confused, he picked up the newfound guns and quickly hurried out of the cafe, trying not to question where they had come from.

Stepping quietly to make sure he didn't wake anybody, he returned to his blanket more optimistic than before. Although he knew that a dozen guns would not change the outcome of tomorrow, he still felt some more hope inside him. Maybe it was fate. Maybe someone was helping them. Maybe they had just miscounted them earlier. Wherever these guns had come from, he knew that they would need more luck the next day.

Later, he lay back onto the cold bricks of the pavement and stared up at the clouds. Now that Paris had switched of all her lights, the familiar heavens looked brighter. His eyelids felt so heavy; he knew that if he was to close them for even a second, he would sleep for days. Just to put his mind to rest, he closed his eyes.

When he first heard the mumbling, he thought it might be Grantaire again and tried to ignore it and carry on sleeping. Eventually, when he became concerned and curious, he tried to wipe the sleep out of his eyes and find out where the noise was coming from. It was still dark but as he scanned the barricade, all he saw were the sleeping silhouettes of his friends. Suddenly he saw a figure staring at him from the front of the ABC cafe. Marius was sitting up and leaning against the wall, staring directly at him. His brown eyes glazed over, never looking away from Enjolras.

Enjolras shivered. Trying to look away from the empty eyes of his friend. He couldn't. He was paralyzed with fear. It took him a few seconds for him to realize that Marius was speaking. In a strange monotone voice, he clearly said "They will come tomorrow at 5 o'clock. They will have cannons so it will not be a close combat fight. They will kill you from a distance. They will have men on the surrounding roofs and streets. DO NOT stay at they barricade, they will shoot you like fish in a barrel".

Enjolras' felt like he had been punched in the stomach. He couldn't breath. Couldn't move or think or scream. His breaths came out short and fast. That voice couldn't be Marius, maybe he was sleepwalking, people sleepwalk when they were stressed didn't they? Marius, still not breaking eye contact, began to get up to walk towards him. Enjolras felt the familiar sense of fear rising up in his chest, a hot bubbling volcano of panic waiting to explode. And then, when he could think of nothing else to do, Enjolras screamed with everything he had left in him.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Typing, talking and planning, the usual hubbub of the office surrounded Tally as she hurried down the crowded corridor. She pushed past the group of scientists who she worked with, keeping her head down, not eager to make conversation. Quickly, she turned the corner, ran the last few steps, composed herself and knocked on the door. Hatred filled inside of her as she heard the horrible smug voice call out: "Enter".

With shaking hands, she turned the handle and walked in. As confidently as she could manage, she strode to the desk in the middle of the room and addressed the man behind the collection of computer screens: "Mr Simons, I was told that you wanted to see me".

"Yes, I did, I want to discuss how things are going in the bubble", the man replied, not taking his eyes of one of the computer screens.

Tally nervously straightened her blazer, "There are a few problems, and it is very unlikely that the rebels will win. Everyone is willing to carry on, and salvage what information we can get"

The boss frowned and tuned away from his computer screen, "As you are aware, Miss Wright, we need all the information that we planned to get in order to understand the rebels mind. Is there anyway that we could help them? Remember, they don't have to win. Just give them a bit more hope and make them a bit stronger to make the fight more even. Do you think that is possible?"

"Of course it is possible. Interfering with the experiment may cause slightly inaccurate results but some sacrifices must be made…" she replied calmly, trying to cover how nervous she was. Mr Simons was the boss of the WWP; of course he knew what was going on in the bubble. Which meant that he must want to talk about something else. Which meant that he must know about her secret.

The boss interrupted, "Good good. Just an extra gun here and get rid of the odd enemy there, no one will know"

"That shall be done" Tally replied, eager to leave the room.

"Now, onto the next matter" the boss grunted, quickly typing something on his keyboard. "Is it already possible to tell which candidate would be best for the final experiment?"

"We have narrowed it down to a possible five. Any of them have the potential we don't have enough data yet to see who would be the best." Tally felt awful thinking about the boys in the experiment, being talked about like animals for slaughter. She had been watching them for so long that she hated to think about what would happen to one of them.

"One more thing before you go Miss Write would you mind asking Mr Horn to check his emails. There is a camera on the outside of the bubble that needs to be fixed. You know how important security is, with the outside rebels and all."

Tally felt sick, the boss was deliberately mentioning the rebels; now she was certain that he knew her secret. He had called her there to scare her, warn her and threaten her.

She smiled, as bravely as she could and replied, "Of course". She turned around and began to walk towards the door, as she touched the door handle, the boss called out "Remember, Miss Write, we can see everything you do. Just keep that in mind ok".

"Ok" she called back, without turning around. After closing the door, she ran back to her office round the corner and collapsed into the chair. She held her head in her hands, trying to think. The most important thing was to warn Fred, he had to know, and she would have act normal until then. Before she could start sending a message to Fred, Steve, one of the scientists who worked in the lap with her, tapped on her shoulder. He leant over to her and whispered: "It's the girl, Eponine, she's dead, it happened while you were in the meeting. "

Tally's heart sank; she had become fond of Eponine, as she had become fond of everyone in the bubble. "So? They die all the time in there?" she replied.

"Yes, but Eponine was special, she has the potential to be in the final experiment" Steve replied, clearly excited, "they said that because it doesn't look like many of the boys will survive, we are aloud to save Eponine. A few men went in a few minutes ago to get her from the barricade, we need to be down there soon to bring her to the hospital".

A mixture of emotions hit Tally. Strangely the first was excitement, the thrill that had made her take this job initially. Then sadness, about what would happen to the poor girl from the barricade. Fear, blinding terror, from what would happen if she saved the barricade girl and if the final experiment was carried out made body go weak. Finally, she felt the feeling that kept her fighting, anger. Anger at the people who thought it was they were aloud to experiment on these people.

She rose from her chair and turned to Steve, "Lets go," she said, trying not to think. Silently, Steve led her down the never-ending maze of corridors that made up the main quarters of WWP. She clenched her fists to stop her hands from shaking, she was a nurse, she was meant to thrive under moments of panic and need. A millions corridors, a few security points and three lift rides later; they arrived at one of the secret entrances to the bubble.

Tally remembered it clearly from her previous visit. One of the girls in the bubble had a serious contagious illness and, to stop it spreading to the others and ruining the experiment, they had quickly grabbed her and injected her with a medicine, erased her memory then let her back in.

The entrance led to the top floor of one of the houses that overlooked the barricade. Tally sneaked a glance out of the window, and there it was, the barricade. Even though she knew that it was fake, she still felt a strange amount of adventure and mystery around it. Her heart stopped as she saw Enjolras, his wet her glistening in the moonlight, walking down one of small streets next to the ABC café. She watched him walk until he tuned the corner and disappeared behind the pile of furniture.

The cool night air freed a few strands of hair from her rushed ponytail as she took a step closer to the window to get a better look. Seeing this world was the most beautiful part of her life. It filled her with optimism that people as good, honest and determined, as the barricade boys existed. Just as she leant out of the window to get a better look at the barricade, heavy footsteps began to clamber up the stairs. She broke out of her trance and turned away from the window, falling back to reality.

"Are you ok?" Steve asked, concerned but clearly aggravated by her distant behaviour.

"Yes, I'm fine, just nervous that's all" Tally replied with a slight nervous smile.

"You're a natural nurse Tally, you know what to do," he quickly said as the door slammed open. One of their guards, disguised as a barricade boy, darted to the bed that they had ready. Onto it, he lay down a skinny unconscious girl, her clothes and hair damp with blood. "Eponine" Tally whispered under her breath…


	3. Chapter 3

Marius' body went limp and dropped to the floor. Enjolras scrambled to his feet and began to back away from Marius, never taking his eyes of the unmoving body. He just wanted to get as far away as possible. The rest of the barricade boys jolted awake, confused by the sudden scream.

Grantaire sprinted up to Enjolras "I heard you scream, what happened?" he almost shouted.

"Its ok. I thought I saw somebody in the alleyway next to the cafe. Just go back to sleep ok?" he said trying to slow down his panicked breathing.

"Look, I can tell you're not okay. But you don't have to tell me if you don't want to" Grantaire replied kindly.

"Grantaire, if I ever have any problems, you are the first person I want to talk to…"

Enjolras mumbled. He knew that his friend was just concerned but all he wanted was some time alone to think about everything.

"You are the first person I always want to talk to" Grantaire interrupted, timidly looking at his shoes, afraid he had said too much.

Enjolras grinned at Grantaire, taking a moment to appreciate his best friend. "I don't know what's wrong with me and I don't think I can explain it, I'm probably just nervous for...you know…tomorrow…" he confessed.

With a sad smile, Grantaire took his friends hand and began to walk towards the café "I understand, I'm terrified for tomorrow. Its only one day though, then it will be over, either way", he said with a sad smile.

"Yes, it will end… and I cant think of a better way to end" Enjolras whispered, smiling at his barricade, friends and Grantaire.

Suddenly, a voice behind them yelled "MARIUS! Marius are you ok? Everybody come here it looks like he's bleeding".

The boys rushed towards where Marius was lying in front of the cafe. Enjolras stayed where he was. The image of Marius' empty eyes was still engraved in his mind.

"Enjolras you should come over and look at this" Courferyac called over to him.

"Ok. Should I get the bandages?" Enjolras called back.

"That's the thing you need to see. He's not bleeding. There is a lot of dried blood around his head, like a cut that has already healed." Courfeyrac replied.

Enjolras sprinted over to the crowd of people, everyone moved so Enjolras and Marius were left in the middle of a ring of boys. Enjolras knelt down next to Marius and moved his blood-covered hair to reveal a long scar on the right side of his head.

"We have to wake him up" advised Courfeyrac.

Hands trembling and head throbbing, Enjolras smacked Marius' face. Instantly, his normal eyes opened and he shuffled away from the group.

"What was that for? Is that your idea for a joke? Look I'm sorry I went after the girl, but I came back and…" he shouted at Enjolras, angry, hurt and confused.

"Marius, you were unconscious covered in your own dried blood. Enjolras had to wake you up." Courfeyrac interrupted as he stepped between Marius and Enjolras. The anger washed from Marius' eyes as he stepped back and tentatively touched his head. Confused, he looked around at everyone, expecting an answer.

"What happened?" Marius and Courferyrac asked at the same time.

"I don't know'" Marius muttered, rubbing the dried blood off his hands. He turned around to look at where he had been sleeping. 'The blood on the wall is wet" he leant over and smudged the blood on the wall, "I probably hit my head on the wall, but that doesn't explain how my cut healed so quickly" he continued as he tried to make sense of the situation.

"I saw you sleepwalking…" Enjolras confessed quietly, "You were walking around and mumbling to yourself, it scared me so I screamed. The scream probably woke you up and then you collapsed". Everyone was listening intently to his story.

"But…"Marius began to say to Enjolras.

Enjolras cut him off, "I don't know how the cut healed so quickly, I'm sorry," he explained.

Everyone stood there in silence, until Gavroche stepped forward and tapped Marius on the shoulder, "Monsieur Marius, yes your cut has healed in a weird and unexplainable way, but lets just take it as good sign from God and carry on. We can worry about it later but at the moment we have an hour until the army may come and shoot us down. Then we will definitely have bleeding heads."

"Well said little Gavroche, he is right, we need to do what we planned, make our enemies bleed for as long as we can." Courfeyrac said, lifting Gavroche up onto his shoulders.

The barricade boys cheered and laughed and sang, ready for the fight ahead.

For an hour, everyone was frantically preparing for the battle. They collected the weapons and repositioned some parts of the barricade. Nerves, fears, hopes and dreams filled the air. Then they sat down to wait.

They heard it. The sound of the steps of thousand of soldiers walking hit the barricade. Collectively their hearts stopped. Frozen. Still. Until a swarm of red turned the corner, their guns and canons already aimed. They could hear the heart next to theirs, beating, beating, almost beating strait out of their chest. Together they breathed in and aimed, ready to make them bleed. The army came to a stop, "Whose there?" a commanding voice called out. Everyone looked at Enjolras; he was the leader and their joint voice. Enjolras stood up, "French revolution" he shouted with pride and confidence.

The enemy shuffled and positioned their canons. The barricade boys gave their last smiles of encouragement to each other. "Cannons fire!" the same voice called out and the world shook around them. The barricade boys leant over the barricade and shot at the enemy, whilst their barricade fell apart around them. A few of the soldiers had ran up to the barricade and were trying to climb over. The battle shifted into a frantic and bloody close combat battle.

Marius looked to the right to check on Enjolras when he spotted it. A soldier with a gun aimed directly at him, around 4 meters away and approaching quickly. The man's finger was eagerly resting on the trigger as drove the end of the gun into Marius' chest. Marius was silently thanked god for Cossette as a bullet hit his attacker in the back. The enemy soldier became lifeless as he fell onto the side of the barricade that belonged to the barricade boys. Relieved, Marius thanked God. It was unclear as to who had shot the bullet, it had hit the soldier in the back, which meant that it must have come from the direction of the enemy army, but Marius was grateful.

The enemy was approaching quickly, and through the chaos, a small figure slipped inside the barricade, silently and unnoticed. The boys continued to shoot, the anger and sadness and frustration at the world was burning in their eyes. Then the small figure stepped out of the other side of the barricade and stood there, watching at the enemy.

"GAVROCHE!" Courfeyrac screamed, desperately trying to climb over the barricade. Everyone around him held him back. He struggled against them, distressed, screaming for Gavroche. Meanwhile, Gavroche was shouting at the enemy, "…You never know what little people can do…" Through the silence, the unmistakable sound of a gun being prepared made the blood of the barricade boys turn cold. They stood watching, in admiration and terror, as Gavroche finished his speech, "…when the pup strikes back!"

One bullet, one scream, and Gavroche was dead.


	4. Chapter 4

Tally breathed a sigh of relief. It was many hours after they had rescued Eponine from the barricade. She had healed her with Steve and now her bullet wound had been cleaned and stitched up and she was breathing as normal. Tally sat down in the chair next to Eponine and looked at the poor girl, who had she been before she had been given the memories? Who was the girl whose memories she possessed? How would she cope with what had happened in the barricade?

Tally took the girls hand and pressed it kindly, her fingers dry and scarred after the time in the barricade. Holding the girls hand, she remembered what Eponine had been holding when she had been bought in from the barricade. She walked over to a trolley that had they had put Eponine's old clothes on. Amongst the pile of dirty fabric, there was a piece of battered paper. Tally opened it and read it; she knew immediately what it was. It was the letter that Cossette had written to Marius that Eponine had found. Tally looked at the girls sleeping pale face and pitied her, she loved Marius so much, but this letter showed how it would never happen. She understood why she had kept it a secret, but the quilt must have been unbearable, lying to your love. She knew that if people found out about the letter they would use it against her to analyse her in different situations. Quickly, Tally stuffed the letter into her pockets along with a necklace that lay next to the dress; she would give them to Eponine when she woke up.

She heard a knock on the door and turned around, hoping that whoever it was had not seen what she had done. Sally sighed with relief when she saw that it was only Steve. He was wearing his lab coat, lab coats made everyone else look like a marshmallow but it suited Steve. It suited his long scrawny figure. It suited his hipster glasses and over grown floppy brown hair. He looked like he knew who he was and who he wanted to be "Well, we saved her…" she said proudly, beaming at Steve.

He walked towards her and hugged her, "Yes, we did it" he replied. He let her go and carried on, "I have a message from Mr Jenkins in your office, he says that you are needed at an emergency meeting in the viewing room"

Tally sighed, she had been up for three days strait, she was exhausted, and she still had to warn Fred about the boss' suspicion of her involvement with the rebels. She put on a brave face, "Does the fun never end around here?" she said jokingly to Steve.

Steve chuckled, his green eyes crinkling in the corners, and sat down in the chair next to Eponine, "I know, I'm exhausted. But soon it will be over."

"I'm looking forward to it" she said enthusiastically while she fetched her coat from the coat hanger at the entrance. She turned back around to face Steve as she buttoned her coat, "Do you know what the meeting is about anyway?" she asked.

"It's probably about the final plan and what we will do afterwards" Steve replied, looking sadly at Eponine.

"Well, I definitely need a coffee to live through that" Tally laughed as she ran to the precious coffee maker in the corner of the room, "Do you want one?"

"Sure" Steve said, "Black, no milk, one sugar please".

"One black, no milk, one sugar coffee coming right up" Tally said, placing an "I Love Science" mug underneath the machine and pressing the button. "I'll make mine and run there, they wont mind if I'm a few minutes late" She said whilst putting sugar in Steve's cup and placing her own under the machine. "Any way, I can just say that you only told me a few minutes ago and I came as soon as you told me" she teased Steve.

"Don't you dare" Steve said kindly, walking over to Tally and punching her on the shoulder, "They already hate me enough because I helped a few poor maids while I worked in the control room" he carried on seriously.

Tally was shocked, Steve had never told her that story and he normally wasn't the rule breaking type. She didn't have time to talk about it now so she ignored it and handed him his cup of coffee. He took it gratefully, "Cheers" he laughed, clinking her mug with his. "Cheers" Tally joined in, then ran out of the room to her meeting.

Luckily the viewing room was close to the hospital so Tally made it there in five minutes without spilling any of her coffee. The door was open so she walked straight in. She had worked in the viewing room for the first few months of the experiment, after she had applied to work in the hospitals and developing labs she had hardly been back. She had grown to like it; the room was a large circle with a meeting table in the middle. Around that there were rings of desks, around 40 in total, each with a computer screen that could show any part of the bubble. Tally's job had been to monitor the main room in the ABC café and write down anything important. She had liked watching the barricade boys; it was a movie for her, with brave heroes and interesting plots. The room was always full off people and there was an excited buzz of conversation. Tally had first met Fred in the viewing room, he had the desk behind hers and they had similar shifts, he bought over her coffee from the machine and gradually they had become friends.

Tally snapped out of memory lane as she realised that everyone was looking at her. There were around 15 people at the desk and 5 seats were empty. She hurried the last few steps to the big table in the middle and sat down in the closest seat, "I'm sorry I'm late, I just got you message and I was looking after Eponine in the hospitals" she explained. "At least you are here," Mr Simons said coldly, giving her an annoyed stare, "Now, as you all know, the final battle is going on in the bubble so we have to confirm our plans for what to do after it is over" he continued.

The man next to him clicked a few times on his laptop and the barricade appeared on a large screen behind them. The film was rotating between different hidden camera views and was showing the live fighting in the barricade. Everyone turned around to look at the screen for a second then turned strait back. Tally couldn't take her eyes of the screen. Her heart broke as she saw Gavroche, little funny Gavroche, lying motionless in Courfeyrac's arms. She noticed that boss was watching her so she looked away from the screen. "The barricade boys are not doing as well as we anticipated but it is to late now, we have to make sure that some of them survive" he said, clearly annoyed about the matter.

"I have a suggestion about how we could make sure a few of them survive" a man offered, Tally didn't know his name but she knew that he had been in charge of constructing the bubble, he had been at many of the initially meetings about the design.

"What is it Mr Swedberg" Mr Simons asked.

Mr Swedberg proudly continued, "We are supplying the French army with the guns, we can put in a few guns that have knock out darts instead of real bullets. They obviously don't know what they are and wont suspect a thing, and after we detect what boys have been hit with those darts we can save them before someone realises".

"Why don't we supply the whole army with those?" Mrs Golding, the old nurse who was Tally's boss in the hospital, interrupted.

"We have a lot of knock out darts but they are all made to fit our modern day guns, we do not have many of the ones that would fit in their guns." He described. "Also, these darts are not guaranteed to work, especially out of an old damp gun; it may just hit the target and have no effect. This would make everybody suspicious and confused. On the other hand, it may hit them in artery and kill them. Our guards who carry their bullets know where to shoot them; in the panic of the battle these could be shot anywhere."

Mrs Golding nodded her head to show that she understood.

Mr Simons turned to Mr Swedbeg "I agree that it is a risky idea but it is the best plan we have, we still get results up to the very end of the fight and we don't have to interfere too much", he turned away and addressed everybody else "Does anybody else have any suggestions?" he asked.

"I have a way that we could make sure that the strongest survive" Mr Peters said and looked up from his laptop. Tally had never seen Mr Peters before. He was new and Tally had heard rumours that he had been hired because he had created a new way to control people. "We have an injection that allows us to control someone, if we inject one of the soldiers with it, we can give him the gun with the knock out bullets and make sure that he is the one to kill the strongest candidates" he proposed.

"That is perfect" Mr Simons exclaimed, "Now all we have to do is decide which of the barricade boys are the strongest candidates. Miss Write, Mrs Golding and Mr Niel, you have all been analysing the boys, who would you say are the top four?"

Tally glanced cautiously at Mrs Golding. They were confirming a death threat to those who they didn't pick. "Definitely Enjolras, he is the leader after all, and he has very promising brain patterns" Tally hinted. She heard a few giggles and tried to ignore them but she could feel her face becoming red. Everyone knew that in the first month of working in the viewing room Tally had developed feelings for the brave blonde leader.

Fortunately Mrs Golding made it less awkward, "I agree with her and definitely Marius, he has potential and has had the most drastic changes in his brain" she said.

"And Courfeyrac, he is not as broken but he seems like he would be willing to help" Mr Niel added.

"Those are good suggestions and they will probably survive long enough…" Mr Simons said. Tally felt terrible about the other boys, and how the ones who lived would live with the guilt. She could already imagine Enjolras waking up in the labs without Grantaire…

"Grantaire!" Tally interrupted.

"Who?" Mr Simons asked frustrated.

"Grantaire is the drunk one" Mr Niel clarified with a slight smirk.

"Yes he is but he still has potential." Tally pleaded, furious with Mr Niel. "Please, if he makes it that far and he is with them, could you please shoot him with them, it only one more bullet"

"Ok, ok, I will write his name down" Mr Simons said. "Now, we don't have long to do this. Only around 30 minutes before the fight is over. Mr Peters get your injection and Mr Swedberg prepare a gun, I will get someone to escort you to one of the secret entrances. We will send a field agent to kidnap a soldier and then we can inject him, give him the gun, control him and make him kill them. This meeting is over, goodbye everybody and act fast".

Everyone rose from their seats and hurried away, they had to be quick for this to work. Tally followed Mrs Golding back to the hospital to prepare for the boys. She felt a bit more hopeful now that she knew that a few would survive.


	5. Chapter 5

_The part at the end in italics is a direct quotation from Victor Hugo's book. _

The fight continued. Enjolras watched proudly as his friends made the enemy bleed. He tried to ignore those who were trying to run, banging and begging on the nearby doors, but no doors opened to save them. He felt the energy of the fight urging him on, as he shot enemy, after enemy, after enemy. The plan wasn't perfect, actually it was barely working, but they weren't perfect and it was the best that they could do.

Panic exploded around him. A soldier had fired a cannon and destroyed the middle section of the barricade. A stream of soldiers trickled over the barricade and shot every rebel in their way. Enjolras tried to fight but there were to many. They were pushing him back. They were to strong. He shot then ran, ran and shot. He watched as too many of his friends fell onto the street defeated. But when his back almost at the wall of the ABC café, and three guns were pointed at him, he decided to take flight instead of fight.

He shouted to the boys around him to follow him. Around four boys, including Marius and Courfeyrac, sprinted behind him into the ABC café. As Marius began to run,the man who had had a gun pojnted at Enjolras spun around and shot him. Marius collapsed onto the floor, a pool of blood burning red on his chest, and Enjolras knew that this time he would not wake up. He took one final look at Marius and thanked him, for being being a part of his life, and then he led his friends up the stairs.

They could hear the pounding of the soldiers on the door. He climbed after his friends, breaking the stairs that lead to the second floor as he went. After breaking the final stair, he ran over to his friends.

They stood in a tight circle for comfort, for their own protection and to protect each other. They could feel each others breath, hear each others heartbeat, understand each others fear as they stood there waiting for death.

And then death came. The door crashed down and the floor shook. Men ran in with their loud voices and guns, the boys tried to look brave, but uncontrollable tears were escaping from their eyes. They heard the men walk beneath them and they could almost sense the guns being pointed at them. His friends were bent over sobbing hysterically, afraid of death. Then, the man fired. Enjolras watched as his friends fell around him with tears rolling down his cheeks and his fists clenched. They lay there, face down in puddles of blood, in the room that had been their most special place.

He swallowed hard to stop himself from being sick. He knelt on the floor, desperately staring at the face of his dead friend Jolie. He heard movement downstairs, probably the soldier leaving. Enjolras put his head in his hands and wept, he could not be aloud to live while his friends died…it wouldn't be fair. He wanted to die like them, for france and the revolution. He wanted to be with them, wherever they were in heaven.

Another soldier entered the ABC café. Enjolras didn't want to fight; he just wanted to die. He knelt onto the floor and looked through the cracks, he knew that he had to fight for his friends. It was the man who had almost shot him, the man who had shot Marius. The face of the man was unforgetable, his cold grey eyes and emotionless stare. He was a large man, definitely taller than Enjolras. Unlike Enjolras, this man was built to be a fighter. Where Enjolras was weak and scrawny, this man was muscular andpowerfull. His wide shoulders almost touched the sides of the door as he walked into the room and faced Enjolras, ready tokill him. Enjolras stood up proudly and edged towards the window. His hand shook as he held up their red flag of rebellion, he held it up in victory, in his opinion, they had won the fight.

The man was enjoying this. Enjoying every second that he stood in power. He walked slowly towards Enjolras, taunting him with death. When he was only a few feet from Enjolras, they heard footsteps. Neither knew which side the new arrival was on, and they watched the staircase to see.

Enjolras' heart stopped. It was Grantaire, covered in blood and pale as death. He wanted to run over there, comfort him and be with him in his last few moments. The guard watched as Grantaire stumbled over to Enjolras, still keeping his gun point on Enjolras.

Enjolras took his flag in his right hand and Grantairs hand in his left, he wanted to die with the two things most important to him, the two things that made him whole. He looked over at Grantaire for conformation, Grantaire gave him an encouraging nod.

_"Finish both of us at one blow," said Grantaire._

_And turning gently to Enjolras, he said to him:_

_"Do you permit it?"_

_Enjolras pressed his hand with a smile._

One bullet later, Grantaire crumbled to the ground.

Enjolras died from the same bullet. He collapsed against the window. His hand still gripping the flag.


	6. Chapter 6

In the room that acted as a secret entrance to the barricade, Tally was watching and waiting to see if their plan would work. Only ten minutes ago, they had grabbed one of the strongest of the French soldiers and injected him with the fluid that allowed them to control him and switched the guns. The last time Tally had seen the soldier, he had been climbing over the barricade.

They were not aloud to open the windows, it would give away their location, but Tally occasionally peeked through the cracks in the window. She couldn't clearly see what was going on, it was a hurricane of panic, people and furniture and blood. Mostly, she just sat on the floor, fiddling with her thumbs, waiting for it to be over.

Steve was over in the other corner with another doctor named Eddie, watching the battle on his phone; they could all access the rotating live footage that was showed in the viewing room. Tally didn't want to watch people dying. She felt disgusted that they were watching it like they would watch a football match of their phone, for entertainment.

"Tally come and watch this, it's important," Steve whispered to her. It was silly that they still had to whisper even when a deafening battle was going on. Nobody would hear them, but it was a well-enforced rule that in a secret entrance you have to whisper, if they didn't do it they could lose their jobs.

"I really don't want to see it" Tally replied, "Can you just tell me when its over and we have to work"

"Its almost over, Marius has already been shot successfully by the knock out dart. Luckily someone has already moved him to our side of the street so it should be easy to grab him." Eddie explained.

"Shouldn't we go and get him then?" Tally enquired whilst getting up and reaching for her gloves.

"The dart keeps him unconscious for an hour, we are going to have to wait until everyone is gone" Steve interrupted as he walked over to sit next to Tally.

He took the operating gloves out of her hands and placed them on the floor. Then he sat down onto the floor where she had been sitting and waited for her to join him. Reluctantly, Tally sat down next to him; Eddie sat on the other side of Steve and began to play the video again.

"What about the other boys that we put on the list?" Tally asked, she was terrified of what she might hear.

Eddie passed the phone to Steve, "Courfeyrac has just been shot, but it was in the café so it will be riskier to get him" he said.

"Ok" Tally mumbled, turning her head away from the phone. She still hadn't heard the name she was waiting for.

"And Enjolras…" Steve started. Tally instantly turned around and blushed.

"Is about to be shot as well" Steve finished and gave Tally his phone.

Tally took the phone and watched. She knew that it wasn't real, that Enjolras wouldn't die and that they were saving him, but she was still afraid of watching him die. He was standing in one of the rooms of the café, his friends were dead around him and the controlled soldier had a gun pointed at him. She swallowed hard and turned so that she had her back to the boys, she didn't want them to see her like this.

The shot changed on the phone and showed Grantaire stumbling up the broken stairs. He reached the top. The look on Enjolras' face when Grantaire reached the top made Tally smile. Her eyes were cloudy with tears as she watched them walk over to each other, facing their deaths together.

"Tally, I know that this is important to you but we have to watch it to see if the plan works" Eddie said.

Tally shook her head and whipped her eyes with her sleeve, "Yes, your right, of course. Here." She said and handed him the phone.

Quickly, they hurried around the phone, eager to see if the plan would work for the final time. Grantaire reached Enjolras and Enjolras raised the flag. The man fired the gun. They died from the same bullet.

"It worked" Steve breathed a sigh of relief.

Eddie looked concerned, "It worked perfectly on Marius and Courfeyrac, I don't know about Enjolras and Grantaire…"

"What do you mean?" Tally interjected.

"The injection in the dart didn't eneter eather of their bodies, they were both scratched by it, which means that there may be some effect but it wont be as good as what we hoped for" Eddie explained.

"So what should we do?" Steve mumbled as he quickly texted on his phone, probably trying to find out what they should do.

"We have to get them out" Tally exclaimed.

"But there are still people around" Eddie said, "The battle is mostly over and the french soldiers are beginning to leave. It should take another half an hour before they have gone"

"We have to risk it, we all decided that they were potential candidates so we cannot let them die" Tally struggled to keep her voice down. She turned to Steve who was still on his phone, "Steve…what do you think?"

"Mr Simons agrees that we should retrieve them quickly as we can not tell how long they will stay unconscious and what will happen to them afterwards" Steve clarified.

"How are we going to get them then without somebody seeing us dragging away dead bodies?" Eddie argued back.

"Many of the residents have begun to go to the barricade to clean up and move the bodies. Mr Simons was wondering if Tally could disguise as one of them, all she would have to do is make sure that they were carried to our side of the barricade, many of the bodies have already been moved there."

Both of the boys turned to Tally waiting for an answer. Tally nodded nervously, 'Ill do it" she said, "But we have to be quick".

In case someone accidently found our entrance, there are clothes in one of the cupboards that look like the ones that the people of Paris wear. Eddie and Steve quickly ran to it and pulled out a dress and shoes for Tally.

"Quick" Steve said and handed Tally the clothes. "Put them on then go"

Tally looked nervously from the clothes to the boys before saying, "Um, do you mind turning around?"

The boys gave her a frustrated and turned around. Tally quickly slipped out of her clothes and put on the faded blue dress. She quickly buttoned up the front then pulled on the leather boots.

"Ready" I whispered.

"Ok, lets go." Steve said taking Tally hands and running out of the door. They sprinted down the stairs until they got to the second floor.

"We cant go further in case someone sees us when you open the door" Steve hissed into Tally's ear.

"It's fine, Ill see you in a few minutes" Tally whispered back and walked down a few more stairs.

Steve ran after her and took her hand, "Tally, promise me you will be careful. You may think that we control what goes on in the bubble but there is still danger in there that we cannot control. Just do what we told you to do, if it doesn't work then leave"

Tally looked him in the eye and squeezed his hand, "I will" she whispered then ran towards the door before she could think about how crazy their plan was.

She turned the door handle, breathed in, and stepped into the world that she had dreamed about for so long. She stopped for a second just to look around at what was happening. She stared at the couple of cannons left behind at the opposite end of the street, the other women dressed like her who were cleaning the road and moving the bodies, the bodies…

Tally felt sick as she saw a burnt body of a soldier a few metres away from her. Another lady gave her a sad look as she walked over to the soldier; Tally nodded her head back and began to walk towards the ABC café, careful not to make eye contact and to blend in as much as possible. There were a few girls standing outside of the café crying, Tally gave them a sympathetic look then opened the door.

The cupboard were Grantaire kept his wine, the table that the boys had sat around to plan their revolution, the place where the old piano had stood, Tally tried not to gawk at all these things that she had only seen on screen. It was strange, it was a world that she knew a lot of things about but, somehow, it felt completely unknown.

She climbed up the broken stairs. Breathing deeply to calm her nerves, the smell of blood and dampness and gunpowder filled her nose. As she reached the top, she saw Grantaire, unconscious in the middle of the room. She ran over to his body, she felt tears creeping into her eyes, her hands were shaking and she didn't know what to do. Sobbing slightly, she walked over to the window where someone had moved Enjolras' body so that it wasn't hanging out of the window. Tally knelt next to him and turned him over so that she could see his face. She moved his blonde hair of his face, his eyes were closed as if he has just fallen asleep. The thing that worried Tally was that his face was freezing cold. The horrible thought that Tally had been trying to push to the back of her mind was coming back: what if the dart hadn't worked properly? What if Enjolras was dead?

A person on the brink of death helped her focus in a strange way; it was probably her nurse instincts kicking in. She began to pull Enjolras by the shoulders until she got to the top of the stairs. A girl was sitting at the table by herself and when she saw Tally she got up and came to help her. In silence, they lifted his body and carried it down the stairs. Tally was grateful that the girl wasn't trying to speak to her; it would have been difficult to know how to act. People watched as they carried Enjolras round the corner to where all the barricade boys were. They lay in a line, as if they had all just fallen asleep, peacefully at rest. They placed him down and then they did the same for Grantaire. They stood there in silence until Tally turned to the girl, "Thank you," she said and she began to walk towards the secret entrance.

Tally began to run and soon she was at the entrance. She opened the door and darted up the stairs.

"Steve" she whispered, "I'm back".

Steve rushed down from the top floor and embraced her, he whispered something into her ear but Tally didn't quite catch what it was. Eddie walked after him and also gave Tally a quick hug then he began to lead them out of the secret entrance.

"You did well." He said as he led them down the labyrinth of corridors, "Samantha is at the other entrance closer to the bodies, she had already retrieved Marius and Courfeyrac, and she will get Enjolras and Grantaire when no one is watching"

"Tally, is it ok if you stay with us and don't go and get changed and clean up?" Steve asked, "We would really need your help".

"Of course" Tally said and tried to ignore how stupid she felt in the dirty dress.

Tally ran with all the energy she had left in her, as they made it to the corridor that lead to the other secret entrance, she saw her friend Samantha wheeling a hospital bed towards them.

"Quick take him, go to the operating rooms next door and make them stable, we can move them to the main ones after that" she said as she passed the bed to Tally.

Tally stared down at Marius' face and ran to the hospital. She swiped her pass, sprinted in then slammed the door. They kept basic emergency medication all around the building so she grabbed a tray with injections and bandages and jogged back to the bed.

She turned to Marius and said "Listen here Marius, we have done so much to save you, there is no way that you are giving up on us now"


	7. Chapter 7

When Enjolras opened his eyes, the world was white. The last thing he could remember, was fighting at the barricade, he didn't understand where he was now. He could hardly remember what had happened; it had all happened so quickly and the panic clouded his memories, making his dreams merge with reality. He searched his memories for the last thing that had happened. The moment came back to him, his last stand by the window in the café. Standing by the window in the café, as Grantaire had fallen in front of him. He didn't know where he was, what he was doing or what had happened, but he knew that he had to keep fighting.

Ready to find out what had happened, he tried to sit up in bed but his wrists and ankles were tied down. He fought against them, using all his strength, trying to force his wrists out of the handcuffs around them. It wasn't working. Angry silent tears rolled down his face as he let all the defeat, pain and stress from the last few days wash over him at once. Take control, he told himself, as he breathed in deeply. He shifted his head to see what was next to him. On one side there was a pristine white wall, too perfect. He turned to the other side and next to him, in a bed under a bundle of sheets, lay Marius.

"Marius" he whispered, his voice came out dry, barely a whisper. He tried again "Marius", this time it sounded stronger. Marius' eyelids twitch and then his eyes opened. He looked around confused for a bit, probably the same bewilderment that Enjolras himself had felt. "Enjolras" Marius tried to say.

Enjolras smiled, "Good morning, Marius".

Marius smiled back, "Where are we?" he asked.

"I don't know" he admitted, confused and scared.

"If this is heaven then it is not what I was expecting…" Marius mumbled to himself.

"I don't think this is heaven Marius" Enjolras said, "But we need to find out where we are and what we are doing here".

"Am I dreaming?" Marius whispered to Enjolras, "Am I dead? Is this what happens when you die? Is this a punishment for the revolution" his voice grew louder as he rambled.

"Marius!" Enjolras snapped at him to get his attention.

"Sorry, just a bit confused." Marius said as he turned his head to face the other way.

"What's next to you?" Enjolras asked, curious about his new surroundings.

Marius turned back to face Enjolras, "Its Courf" he smiled.

"Is he asleep?" Enjolras questioned.

"Yes, should I wake him up?" Marius replied.

"Wake him up, but be kind and explain that we don't know what is going on"

Enjolras heard Marius softly calling Courfeyrac's name, there was no reply, until suddenly, Courf woke up and began to scream. He was screaming and yelling and fighting hysterically against the handcuffs and Marius' words were doing nothing to calm him. Enjolras didn't want whoever had done this to them to come and find out what the noise was; kidnappers weren't Enjolras' favourite type of people. He knew that they would come, sooner or later, and he wanted to talk to Courfeyrac and Grantaire before they came.

"Courfeyrac!" Enjolras shouted. The screaming stopped.

A shaky voice called out "Enjolras? Is that you?"

"Of course its me Courf" Enjolras tried to make himself sound happier and more in control than he felt, to make both Courfeyrac and himself feel safer.

Courfeyrac called back, "Where are we Enjolras?"

"I don't know Courf". Enjolras heard shuffling and mumbling from Courfeyracs directing, it was annoying not being able to see each other. For some reasons they had, for now, been saved, Enjolras hoped that if there was someone else next to Courfeyrac, that it would be Grantaire.

Immediately after this thought, Courfeyrac replied, "Grantaire is next to me but on the other side of him there is only a wall."

Enjolras was grateful that Grantaire was safe, the revolution had been better with him and so would their new adventure.

He couldn't think of anything to say to Grantaire, or the other two, what do you say to your best friends when you should all be dead?

"We survived Enjolras", Grantaire began, "Some crazy miracle happened and somehow we survived"

"I know". A comfortable silence fell over the room; no body could grasp what was happening.

Goosebumps and electrical shivers covered Enjolras as he heard something on the other side of the wall next to him. Silent sounds of breathing and moving. A high-pitched beep echoed throughout the empty room and a door in the corner of the room slid open. Enjolras had to move his neck to see what was going on. A girl had walked into the room and the door had shut behind her. Because he was lyeing down, Enjolras couldn't see her properly, just some grey material here and a her black boot there. She walked over to stand next to his bed and Enjolras saw her face. Her chocolate brown eyes looked at him in a familiar friendly way, and Enjolras knew that she remembered him. He stared at her wavy brown hair, her hollow cheeks and rose colour mouth, trying to trigger some memories of her.

"Eponine!" he cried, annoyed at himself for not noticing her, she did look different, cleaner, healthier, but she still had the same lonely eyes.

"Almost thought you had forgotten me there" She teased him. Enjolras heard the other boys call out Eponines name and a familiar hum of friendly conversation began to warm the room, almost like the café.

"We don't have long before they come" Eponine explained as she took a bunch of keys out of her pocket.

She fumbled around for the right one and began to unlock the bands on Enjolras' hands, "Before who comes?" Enjolras asked her.

"I don't know who they are, but they saved us, we are the only ones from the barricade who are alive" she released a deadly bomb on information that shattered the boys. Eponine ignored the silence and unlocked the bands over Enjolras' ankles, "After I was shot I woke up in a hospital bed with around me…" she finished with Enjolras and turned to Marius, "As soon as they realised that I was awake, they moved me into a small room where only one doctor would treat me, no body answered any of my questions. Anyway, once I was healthy again they just left me alone. I sat in the room all day, they would open a small flap to slide some food into my room, but that was the only contact I have had. Until today. A man came into my room and told me that some of my friends had been saved, he told me that I should come in here and unlock you and then somebody would come and explain everything to us. I think they want us together for when they explain everything" Eponine had unlocked all of the boys and they were exchanging hugs and fond words.

"So when are they coming?" Grantaire asked.

"They didn't tell me that" Eponine replied and almost on cue, the door slid open again.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 Les Mis version 2

About time, Eponine thought, as the door slid open and the man walked in. Before any of them could say anything, the man began to speak: "Please could you hold anything that you would like to say until the end, I am going to explain everything to you and I expect you to listen in silence".

Eponine was taken back by his confidence, the man was short, scrawny, and wore an oversized doctor's coat and crooked glasses, the five of them could easily fight through him.

The man pushed his glasses back up his nose and carried on, "And if any of you have any plans of escaping or anything of that sort, then I am warning you now that I have guards behind this door and it would not be wise to try anything"

Eponine looked around at the other boys, they looked as annoyed as she felt, but she was curious to hear what had happened.

"Now I understand that you have been through a lot, and you have made many sacrifices, but it is all worth it"

"What on earth do you mean? We lost the revolution, everybody died." Enjolras argued back, Eponine knew that the silence rule wasn't going to last long with them.

The man carried on as if nothing had happened, "I am going to explain it from the beginning. You all believe it is 1832, in fact it is 2113…"

She didn't hear the next few words that the man said, the disbelief and anger made Eponines head hurt; she leant onto the edge of the bed behind her for support.

"The world is a warzone, we have warfare that can destroy massive areas of land, and whole countries were destroyed. Technology that came after your time can kill thousands easily. Poisonous gasses, guns and plague to name a few. People are fighting other countries, parts of their own countries, fighting the rich, the rebels, the powerful and each other."

Before, Eponine had thought that the things that men had done to each other in the revolution had been the most inhumane thing possible. This real world seemed impossible to her.

"The scientists from surviving countries came together, you see, violence has been the normal for these people for so long, that it has become part of their nature. There is a part of the brain, the humane good part of us, which stops us from murdering cold-bloodedly. When people rebel, like you all did, and set out to kill other human beings, this part of the brain breaks and the person can keep on killing without any guilt or sympathy or sadness."

A shiver ran down her spine, apparently she was now a heartless barely human person whose only goal in life was to kill.

"We believe that this problem can be fixed. If we understand the break in the mind, then we can fix it. We plan to create a cure that can be spread the rebels with broken minds, hopefully through a large high frequency wave that can reach large numbers of people at once. That is why we began the experiment and where you come in…"

"So that's what we are? You're little science guinea pigs that you can use to try to save this mucked up world? No, no, no." Grantaire began to rant at the man, his face a burning red and his hands shaking a worrying amount. Eponine felt stupid, she was the girl who had survived the toughest areas of Paris, fought in the revolution, died for the one she loved, she was a tough fighter, and here she was, being told all this horrific information about her fake life and she wasn't fighting back. A part of her found the plan fascinating; she had been so grossed in listening that she had hardly thought about what she would do next.

"To analyze the brain patterns of the rebels and get more information about the break, we created a copy of the June Rebellion. The June Rebellion is perfect: many of the rebels began as normal people so we got to watch the part of the mind break. It is small enough for us replicate, the fighting was only in small parts of Paris so we wouldn't need a lot of land and we have a lot of accurate personal accounts about many of the boys "

"But who are we? Are we the zombie of dead barricade boys or something?" Marius asked.

For the first time, the man acknowledged one of their questions, "No you are not zombies. You are volunteers, you volunteered to help the experiment and, using technology that we have developed, we gave you the memories and motives of the known barricade boys so that you believed that it was happening. We placed you in our fake Paris to recreate the situation and analyse the break in your brain as the revolution progressed.'

"So what happens now?" Enjolras asked.

"Now, all of your brains have the broken part in them, we need to use one of your minds for a final experiment to map out the mind. It has never been done before and may leave you damaged or it could be fatal. But your life would save many and stop the human race from completely wiping out each other. For the rest of you, we can still run tests on you, which will give us more data and help with the experiment. We can give you your old memories back if you want, the memories from the person you were before the barricade, but they overlap with your memories from the barricade too much, so your memories from the barricade would be gone"

"Who were we before? What life do we have to go to?" Grantaire asked.

"I don't know who you were before, I highly doubt your old life still exists, I'm sorry. You all came to us in different ways and volunteered" he continued. Eponine didn't want to forget her time at the barricade, she didn't want to forget her friends, her experiences and Marius.

"Where is everyone else from the barricade?" Courfeyrac, who had been silent this whole time, asked with a cold voice.

"Those who you saw die are dead, we had to make it realistic for your brains to believe it, those people had volunteered like you and wanted to help the world. Those who didn't die, such as the French soldiers, were taken out and given back their old memories."

"So Gavroche is dead…and you just watched and let him die for nothing," Courfeyrac continued, approaching the man.

"We are very sorry for your loss but they knew what they were doing when they volunteered…"

Eponine could see that Courfeyrac was getting annoyed.

"Gavroche was young and brave, how could you let a child into an experiment where it was almost certain that they would die…" by now Courfeyrac was shouting at the man and he looked ready to fight.

"The boy who you believe to be Gavroche was an exception, he wanted to go, his brother went in and took responsibility for him"

"You saved us though, why couldn't you save him. Just because his mind wasn't broken and he wasn't a murdered, that doesn't make him not worth saving. You're the murderers! You killed him! Analyze your own mucked up minds!" Courfeyrac had tears streaming down his face. He tried to punch the man but before his hand could hit the man, he grabbed his hand back.

"What was that?" he exclaimed, "Its like…a wall." he looked down at his hand.

"I warned you that you shouldn't try to hurt me," the man said, "Now there's an invisible barrier between us"

Courfeyrac ran towards the barrier and tried to break it, smashing it with his fists, shouting at the man. Eponine stepped forwards, placed her arm on his shoulder and pulled him back.

"Calm down", the man said, "We have explained everything to you, now we expect you to act professionally"

Eponine was struggling to hold back Courfeyrac, the man continued to speak, "I am going to leave now, I will come back tomorrow, we need one of you to volunteer for the final experiment and the rest of you have to decide whether or not you want your memories back"

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper, "Grantaire, before you went into the bubble, you gave me this and asked me to give it to you if you ever came out"

Grantaire took the envelope from the man. He looked around nervously at everyone then he opened it. Eponine walked over to him, "What does it say?" she asked.

Grantaire didn't look up but he began to read, "If you are reading this then you have been offered your memories back. Don't take them. You don't want to know. Don't try to find out. Just take this as a fresh start"


	9. Chapter 9

_**I made quite a few changes to the previous chapter, chapter 8, so it may be best if you go back and read that first. **___

Enjolras didn't know what to think. He walked up to the perfect white wall and punched it. The pain helped, it gave him something to concentrate on. Pain was something familiar that he knew hadn't changed. He punched again and felt a hot white pain set his knuckles ablaze. The blurred sound of his friends behind him and the echoes of the scientist thundered in his mind. His body felt weak and his hand hurt but he punched it one more time, hot blood sprung to the cut skin on his knuckles. Through his clouding eyes, he stared down at his familiar hands, that weren't even his. The person he believed he was wasn't even real, just the memories of another dead man. He slowly knelt down to crouch on the floor; he cradled his bleeding hand and, for the first time, wasn't afraid of showing fear in front of his friends. He didn't know what to do or how to help his friends. Enjolras saw Courfeyrac walking over to him; he didn't look up.

"I will never help them, I would rather die than help them," the Courfeyrac said bitterly. Nobody said anything so he carried on, "They let Gavroche die, and I will never forgive them for that".

"But what can you do to change it?" Enjolras' trembling voice asked.

"I can't turn back time, unless these people have a machine for that you never know. But I want revenge for all our dead friends, and the next time I see that scientist or anyone who works here, I will kill him, show them what it's like to lose someone unfairly".

Enjolras knew Courfeyrac but he had never seen him like this. Normally Courfeyrac was the positive glue of the group, keeping them together and helping them to carry on. The truth about their lives was hurting him differently, making him angry and desperate, and Enjolras knew that it wouldn't end well. Being angry and desperate against the monarchy in Paris hadn't worked, and it probably wouldn't work against these futuristic scientists who they knew nothing about.

Enjolras shuffled closer to Courf and tried to explain it in the nicest way, "Courf, I know you feel passionate about this, but I feel like we are the vulnerable ones in this situation, we are in no place to fight. We hardly know this new world we are in and whom we are fighting against. It might be better to wait a bit, play along with their plan".

"I understand Enjolras, and I wont do anything stupid that could get you hurt, but if I was left alone in a room with anyone from this place, I would not hesitate before killing them".

"Ok" Enjolras accepted. A silence fell over the group once more; everyone was busy sorting out their own thoughts.

"I don't want my memories back" Eponine broke the silence. "I don't care who I was before, it can't have been that great if I volunteered for an experiment that was essential a death sentence. In a way I like the person who I became in our fake world. The experiences, the people and the revolution are probably the best things that have, and will ever happen to me. I don't mind if any of you want to take your memories back, I will love you all either way", she stopped for a few seconds, looking down at her feet and twisting a lock of her loose brown hair that escaped from her braid like she always did when she was nervous. With a light laugh she carried on, "Wow, that was a long and deep speech, I'm sorry you all had to listen to that, I'm just trying to decide what I want to do and it helps to think aloud".

"It wasn't silly 'Ponine, its exactly how I feel. I don't want to forget Cosette." Marius said as his voice began to tremble at the mention of his lost love. Enjolras gave Eponine a comforting look, he had noticed her feelings towards Marius: the way she helped him, knew him and had died for him. But even after she had died in his arms, Marius was naïve and oblivious about her feelings, he thought mentioning Cosette was harmless and romantic, but to Eponine, it was ripping open old wounds she was trying her best to cover. "But I don't mind being in the final experiment. Especially for you Eponine, you saved my life at the barricade and I know that nothing will ever repay it, but the least I can do is go into that experiment instead of you". He put his arm around Eponine, as if he were trying to protect her from anything that might try to harm her in this new wide world, but Enjolras knew that it was brother-sisterly love.

"Marius, really you don't have to…" Eponine began.

Grantaire interrupted, "No Marius, you don't have to, because I want to be the one for the final experiment".

"No Grantaire you cant…" Enjolras got up to plead with his best friend. "Grantaire, please you just can't, I need you…"

"Please Enjolras, just listen. This letter scares me, I don't want to know who I was before, and so taking back my old memories is not an option. I don't know what I'll do in this world with my barricade memories, you all know I wasn't happy there and I don't want to be here. You all need each other, lets just give them what they want and carry on".

Enjolras knew that when Grantaire made up his mind, there was nothing he could do. All he could do was hug his friend and hold his feelings in.

Click. Slide. Push. Everyone turned to look at the door. Was the man coming back? Courfeyrac ran towards the door, true to his word, ready to attack. However, instead of the whole door opening, a small flap at floor level opened and a tray with five tin boxes slid through. The flap slid shut and they were alone again. Marius walked over and picked up the tray and bought it over to the group.

"Five. One for each of us." He said as he took one for himself. The lid opened easily and inside there was a bowl with a lid on it, a bread roll, an apple and a bottle.

"Its food. At least they aren't going to starve us" he said and gestured for the others to take their boxes. They all took their boxes and sat on the beds, Enjolras, Marius and Grantaire on one and Eponine and Courfeyrac on the other. Enjolras tasted the unidentifiable soup that they had been served, an unappetising mush of vegetables and meat, but since he could hardly remember the last time he had eaten, any food was welcome. Having devoured all the soup, he leant his back against the wall and began to nibble at the bread roll and listen to his friends.

"This new world is weird" Eponine wondered.

"That's certainly one way to put it" Marius marvelled with his mouth full of soup.

"The war sounds horrific" pondered Grantaire gloomily.

"It does, especially all the warfare. Hopefully they have invented something good." Eponine tried to sound optimistic.

"Maybe they have invented time travel" Courfeyrac said.

"Or a teleportation device" Eponine said.

"Maybe a mind reading machine" he said.

"Ooh, that would be cool" she said.

" An invisibility machine"

"A shrink ray"

Enjolras listened as his two friends joked about the possibilities in the new and scary world, their suggestions got weirder and weirder as they went along.

Enjolras laughed as Courfeyrac suggested yet another bonkers idea, "How about an type of wine that gives the drinker amazing dance moves"

"Genius, Grantaire would love that" Eponine lauged.

Enjolras laughed and looked at Grantaire, he was distantly moving his soup around the bowl. At the mention of his name he looked up and smiled encouragingly at his friend but returned immediately to his thoughts.

"How about a cake gun, it would shoot out different types of cake," Eponine said, her eyes shining at the thought of cake.

"And that everybody, is how Eponine plans to get world peace" Courfeyrac joked as Eponine punched his shoulder.

"World peace would be impossible in this world, even with cake" Enjolras said, and the mood instantly changed.

"Yeah, nothings going to save this world. I didn't really understand the science that the man explained, but I understood that we are important" Marius muttered.

"We are important and they need us; they will do anything to get us." Enjolras suggested with a more serious tone.

"Exactly, **they** need **us**. So we should be able to ask for things, and they should give them to us because they want us on their side to help" Grantaire argued back.

"But these people don't seem reasonable, look at what they have done to us and our friends. I think that if we don't agree with them, they will still get what they want and they will take it from us with force. Lets just play along with them, it will be easier and safer." Enjolras tried to reason with his friend.

At the mention of their old friends, Enjolras could see everybody's spirits drop.

"What do you think they would want us to do?" Marius asked.

"I don't know, I really don't know" Enjolras whispered.

"They where amazing weren't they, Combeferre, Jean, Feuilly, Joly…" Marius' voice quivered to a stop.

"So what do we do now?" Eponine asked.

"Well, that man will come back sooner or later, but I guess until then we can do what we want" Enjolras suggested.

"I'm going to go to sleep" Grantaire said as he was already standing up and walking over to his bed at the other end of the corridor.

Enjolras watched Grantaire walk away, he didn't know how to help and their shared corridor wasn't the best place to have a private conversation. He meekly smiled at his friends. They continued to talk into what they thought was the night. They talked about the past, the present, the future. They laughed and cried and faced all the feelings they had been afraid off since waking up. They talked till their voices became slurred from fatigue and there were no more tears left to cry. Eventually, they decided to go to sleep; the next day would probably be just as hard. Enjolras walked over to his bed at the farthest end of the corridor and collapsed into a deep sleep, ready to face the nightmares.


	10. Chapter 10

Enjolras ran as fast as he could down the cobbled streets. His heart was pounding so powerfully; he could hear only blood rushing through his ears and quick screams of wind skimming around his face. Stopping was not an option. To see if he had lost them, he allowed himself a quick glance behind him. There they were. The soldiers. Theirs eyes were rolled back in their heads as if they were unconscious and they were wearing the bloodied shreds of what was left of their white lab coats. Exhaustion had clouded his sense of time; he didn't know how long he had been running away from them. The numbness of his legs and the dull buzzing in his ears told him that he probably wasn't going to be able to go on much longer.

He whipped around yet another unknown corner. The street had narrowed into an alleyway, a long path that seemed to have no end. Enjolras tore down the street as a bullet smashed into a pile of bricks only metres away from him. He fell to the ground but dragged his feet up to carry on. This was the first time the soldiers had tried to shoot him, and it quickly began to rain bullets and broken glass around him. Blood began to seep from his right arm; desperately he looked up ahead to see that the road still seemed to have no end. Unexpectedly, the door of one of the houses open and a hand popped out and waved to him cheerfully. Without any hesitation, he ran up to the house and collapsed through the doorway.

"Silly Enjolras, look at yourself, you're filthy. Go and wash your hands then we can all have dinner," a familiar warm voice said to him. Enjolras opened his eyes to see his mum looking down at him, the ends of her long blonde hair tickling his face as she smiled down at him lovingly.

"Mum…" he tried to say.

"Don't try and 'mum' me" she joked as she gave him her hand to help him up.

Confused, Enjolras walked into the well-known kitchen as his mum walked upstairs.

Everything was the same as it had been when he left, the smell of his mothers cooking (lasagne, his favourite), the bar of lavender soap next to the sink, his sisters paintings on the wall and his fathers papers strewn over the table. Truly smiling, he breathed in and absorbed as much of the room in as possible, wrapping himself in a blanket of nostalgia and happiness. Having washed his hands, he picked up a pile of plates left next to the sink and began to place them at the table. Just as he had placed the final one, at the end of the table where his father sat, he heard his mother scream. His heart dropped and he ran up the stairs and rushed into his parents room were it sounded like the scream had come from.

Instead of his parent's bedroom, Enjolras found himself in the upstairs room of the ABC café. He covered his mouth to stop himself from screaming, because standing in front of the window as a soldier pointed a gun at him, stood his past self. Tears streamed down his face as he curled up the corner and closed his eyes. It must be a dream, he thought, but he couldn't wake up. New footsteps began to walk up the broken staircase. Enjolras covered his ears with his hands. Whispers in the back of his mind sounded like Marius calling his name; he opened his eyes to see if Marius had somehow come upstairs. Marius was nowhere to be seen so Enjolras squeezed his eyes shut again.

"Enjolras it's not real" Marius' voice called out.

"I know its not real Marius. It was all planned out" Enjolras whimpered to himself. Now, Marius' voice was so clear it sounded like he was sitting next to him. Enjolras opened his eyes and saw himself and Grantaire together by the window.

"Enjolras you're dreaming. Wake up." Marius' voice said. It felt like someone was shaking him by the shoulders. His vision blurred.

As the gun fired, Enjolras snapped awake.

It was a dream. Only a dream. Enjolras repeated to himself as he calmed himself down. Marius was sitting at the foot of his bed, a concerned look on his face.

"Bad dream?" Marius asked.

Enjolras nodded, that was the only way to put it.

"Enjolras, I woke up a little while ago, and Courfeyrac is gone" Marius explained as he looked over at Courfeyrac's empty bed.

Enjolras suddenly felt unsafe.

Marius tried to explain what he knew, "I don't know where he would have gone. I checked and the door is still locked. If he didn't leave, it must mean that he was…"

"Taken" Enjolras said, "I have to talk to these people"

"I know. But lets tell Grantaire and Eponine before you do anything"

"Tell Grantaire and Eponine what?" a heavy-eyed Grantaire enquired from his bed at the opposite end of the corridor.

"That Courf is gone," Marius explained.

"They took him," Grantaire said coldly. Grantaire turned to Eponine's bed, gently shook her shoulder and mumbled her name. Clearly still exhausted, Eponine lifted her sleepy head with a troubled, "What's happened now?"

Enjolras nodded in agreement, "Courfeyrac has gone".

"It's probably because he wasn't going to help them. You heard him last night, he was screaming death threats all over the place" Grantaire justified as he walked over to join his friends, "I wouldn't put it past these people to get rid of him".

The brutal reality about what these people might do began to scare Enjolras, "You know what scares me most…that none of us realised that someone was taking our friend. We didn't hear anything and I'm sure Courf wouldn't go quietly" he said.

The click of the door preparing to slide open cracked through the air. Without thinking, Enjolras grabbed the nearest item to him, the empty tin that had held his dinner the night before, and jumped in the air, ready to attack. The scientist had returned.

Bleed. All Enjolras wanted was to make the scientist bleed for taking his friend. But he knew it wouldn't help him or his friends, so he held himself back.

"Good morning" the scientist said politely, as if he hadn't realised the missing member of their group. "I hope you have made up your mind about who will be doing the final experiment and whether or not you would like your memories back".

Enjolras watched as Grantaire stepped forward, "I will be used for the final experiment," he said calmly.

Satisfied, the scientist smiled before addressing Enjolras, Eponine and Marius, "And would the rest of you like your memories back?"

"None of us would like our memories back" Enjolras told the scientist.

"Ok", the scientist showed no emotion to what Enjolras said, "The boss here would like to speak to one of you, we don't really mind who but if any of you would be interested…"

"I will come" Enjolras interrupted him.

"Splended, you will come with me now. For the rest of you, some of my colleagues will come here in a few hours. They will show you around the institute and move you to your new more comfortable rooms." the scientist turned and walked out of the room.

Enjolras gave his friends a weak smile and followed the scientist.


End file.
